Meet our Experts: Sakurai Yasuyuki

Hi, I am Sakurai Yasuyuki - better known as Yasu in the organization. I’ve been with the company for 21 years now. Interestingly I began my career in education, working at an international school for children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders in the United States. This role gave me deep insights into education and human resources development through program supervision and management. My journey took a significant turn when I joined Wallenius Wilhelmsen in Tokyo, Japan, focusing on Human Resources and Competence Development roles for the Asia region. The complexity and global reach of the shipping industry intrigued me, leading me to embrace this new path.

One year after joining Wallenius Wilhelmsen in Tokyo, I transitioned from the HR department to the Commercial department, handling automotive customers. This shift opened up various opportunities, allowing me to take on roles such as Account Manager for Japanese accounts in the Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) region based in Belgium, Head of Automotive and High & Heavy Sales in Japan, and Head of Sales Development for the Asia region in Seoul.

By June 2023, I joined the Orcelle Accelerator Taskforce, representing Customer Growth globally, marking another pivotal step in my career.

My primary responsibilities revolve around several key areas:

- Green Product Development:
Initially, we're focusing on Reduced Carbon Service for our shipping services, with plans to extend to our land-based services in the near future.

- Commercial Strategy Alignment:
Leading and aligning strategies with Customer Growth Sales teams on green products and decarbonization issues. This includes implementing biofuels, managing EU ETS surcharges, developing Net Zero End-to-End Services, establishing Green Shipping Corridors, and fostering the Global Ro-Ro Community.

As many of us are very well aware, the EU is leading the way in global shipping decarbonization regulations. A notable regulation is the ‘FuelEU Maritime’, which comes into effect on January 1, 2025. Simply put, it mandates shipping lines to use low-carbon fuels to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) intensity on a Well-To-Wake/Fuel Life-Cycle basis. This regulation significantly influences our operational and strategic planning.

We are proactively preparing to comply with new regulatory measures like FuelEU Maritime. Our planned usage of low-carbon fuels, such as biofuels and e-methanol, is expected to significantly lower GHG intensity, surpassing the regulation's initial targets of a 2% reduction by 2025 and 6% by 2030. However, achieving these ambitious goals requires a collaborative approach with our customers and industry partners. Our collective efforts are crucial to meeting the Net Zero target.

We expect our marine transportation industry will take similar approaches and face similar challenges as the airline industry, which has committed to decarbonizing through Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF). The maritime shipping sector will need to adopt carbon-neutral and low-carbon fuels to decarbonize effectively. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) is likely to implement regulations mirroring the FuelEU Maritime to achieve its GHG Strategy milestones: 20-30% reduction by 2030, 70-80% by 2040, and Net Zero by or around 2050.

Our strategy involves leading the industry rather than following. We've named our new methanol dual-fuel PCTCs the "Shaper" class, symbolizing our role in shaping the future. We've established the Global Ro-Ro Community to develop a deep-sea Ro-Ro/PCTC industry standard for GHG emission accounting with partners like ClassNK, NYK, and Smart Freight Center. Since launching our Reduced Carbon Service in July 2023, which promises up to 24% reductions in customers' Scope 3 GHG emissions using B30 biofuels, we've already seen many customers join us. We continue to expand biofuel blend bunkering globally and build partnerships to advance our decarbonization journey.

I’d say clear and effective communication is crucial to our decarbonization journey to succeed. We ensure that both internal and external stakeholders fully understand the benefits, challenges, and impacts of regulatory changes on services and costs. Our decarbonization taskforce is dedicated to this effort, regularly hosting internal learning sessions, meetings, and external workshops with customers. We believe that transparent communication and collaboration are essential for successfully decarbonizing our deep-sea Ro-Ro industry.